After receiving a University/College degree, completing an F-1 program, or completing a J-1 program, many non-citizens are seeking a way to legally live and have a career in the United States. An H-1B visa is one potential choice, which permits the non-citizen to legally work and live in the United States for up to a total of 6 years. H1-B visas provide a needed source for organizations and companies to legally obtain skilled and professional non-citizen employees, due to a shortage of available United States workers to fill all skilled job positions. The vast majority of H1-B petitions are sought for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related employment positions; however H1-Bs visas apply to a large number of skilled, professional job positions.
The petitioner must establish to the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) several statutory requirements to receive H1-B approval: the employment is for a “specialty occupation”, which means that the entry level educational requirement is at least a bachelor degree in fields related to the employment; the foreign visitor qualifies as a professional; and that Labor Condition Application (LCA) is certified by the United States Department of Labor. Some foreign workers are able to receive H1-B visas by substituting their work experience when they lack the necessary educational requirement, however this is a very complicated legal area which is best left for an immigration lawyer to handle.
A continuous policy of the United States government is to protect citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents from all non-citizen labor competition, and to encourage the hiring of US citizens and green card holders over all other qualified workers. Organizations and companies cannot legally hire cheap foreign labor in the United States to increase their profits. In order to ensure that the labor market is not undermined by foreigners willing to work for less, H1-B laws require payment of wages to any foreign worker to be the higher of the actual (the wage paid to other workers in similar positions) or the prevailing wage (the average salary for workers in the relevant area of employment). With every H1-B petition, the organization or company behind the employment must attest that the employment of the non-citizen worker will not affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed United States workers, and the company or organization must also notify its own workers of the its’ intention to hire any H1-B worker.
In order to limit the number of foreign workers potentially competing against US workers, the US government imposes a “H-1B cap”, which limits the number of H1-Bs that will be authorized and processed each year by the USCIS. Based upon the large numbers of H1-B applicants and the small number of visas, a “H1-B lottery” is conducted by the USCIS to determine which petitions will be processed each year. One exception to the H1-B cap limitations is for non-profit organizations, research institutes, educational facilities, and hospitals, which are sometimes allowed to petition non-citizen worker at any time during the year without H1-B cap limitations that are otherwise applicable.
“Dual intent” is permitted for those who receive an H1-B visa from the USCIS, which basically means that the non-citizen H1-B visa recipient is permitted to maintain an intent to remain in the United States on a temporary or permanent basis. A organization or company is allowed in the future to petition for an employment based green card application to sponsor the non-citizen worker, which allows the the non-citizen worker to become a Lawful Permanent Resident (green card holder) upon approval.
You should hire immigration law specialist Sufen Hilf of Hilf & Hilf, PLC to handle your H1-B case for a number of different reasons: first, Immigration laws are constantly subject to change, and you need someone who is up to date on changes in law and policy to properly handle your file; second, there are a number of situations that are more heavily scrutinized (for example: third party placement; positions at lower wage levels; H1-B visa transfers; positions that have low qualification or skill requirements; students on F-1 visas and OPT seeking a H1-B visa; etc.) which should be handled by a lawyer; third, there are many technical components to filing the H1-B petition, such as correctly completing and filing the petition, accurately providing prevailing wage information, responding to a Request for Evidence, etc. that also require a competent immigration lawyer’s representation; fourth, having someone to answer questions and provide information concerning the file is an important and stress reducing part of the process. Contact Hilf & Hilf, PLC today for top tier immigration representation from immigration lawyers with a track record for success.